High silica content of Martian soil is
High silica content of Martian soil is yet another indicator of past water on Mars. “The fact that we found something this new and different after nearly 1,200 days on Mars makes it even more remarkable.”
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kottke.org posts about space
The first photo of Earth from space
The first photo of Earth from space was taken by a V-2 missile in 1946. Large panoramic shot of a 1948 photo is here.
Scientists have found an Earth-like planet orbiting
Scientists have found an Earth-like planet orbiting one of the closest stars to our solar system. “On the treasure map of the universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X.”
If you’re running on a treadmill in
If you’re running on a treadmill in Bismarck, North Dakota or Flagstaff Arizona or while orbiting the earth, are you really running the Boston Marathon?
A nice piece about the tools that
A nice piece about the tools that astronauts use in space. “[The space station arm] can delicately move suited astronauts, plucking them up from the airlock and transferring them to designated work areas and back again, like a mother cat relocating kittens.”
Using ground penetrating radar, NASA has discovered
Using ground penetrating radar, NASA has discovered an ice deposit at Mars’ south pole so large that if melted, it would cover the entire planet under 30 feet of water.
One of NASA’s spacecraft caught a lunar
One of NASA’s spacecraft caught a lunar transit of the sun. The movie is a must-see.
Nice composite photo of the lunar eclipse
Nice composite photo of the lunar eclipse last night. We missed it because it was a bit cloudy and tall buildingy in NYC last night. (thx, ajit)
Update: Here’s another, another, and one more.
On tonight’s to-do list: total lunar eclipse.
On tonight’s to-do list: total lunar eclipse. Totality occurs at 5:44pm ET and will last about an hour. On the east coast of the US, the moon will already be eclipsed when it rises. Best bet for seeing it is Africa, Europe, and the Middle East (see map).
Muttnik
Yesterday’s I Did Not Know That Yesterday! tidbit concerned Sputnik 1, the Soviet satellite launched in 1957.
But what fate befell the iconic satellite? After 1,400 trips around the Earth, Sputnik burned up when it reentered the atmosphere in January of 1958 (just as it was supposed to).
The very next Sputnick launched contained the first terrestrial space traveller, Laika, a dog. Ok, wait. The first one burned up in earth’s atmosphere after three months and the second one contained a dog…that’s right, the Soviets killed that poor dog! When I heard the story of Laika as a kid, whoever I heard it from omitted that part. Although Laika didn’t burn up in the atmosphere, she was also not euthanized after 10 days of flight as Soviet scientists had planned. A Sputnik scientist recently revealed that Laika died after only a few hours in orbit from stress and overheating.
Two other (unrelated) things I didn’t know about Sputnik: that it was tiny (smaller than a basketball) and that Herb Caen coined the word “beatnik” based on Sputnik.
NASA’s plan for dealing with a psychotic
NASA’s plan for dealing with a psychotic or suicidal astronaut in space: duct tape and tranquilizers.
Lots of nice photographs on Flickr of
Lots of nice photographs on Flickr of Comet McNaught, the brightest comet seen by the earth since 1965. This one by John White is stunning.
Good news, everyone! (spoken in my best
Good news, everyone! (spoken in my best Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth from Futurama): one Mars thingie (the Reconnaissance Orbiter) has spotted another Mars thingie, the Pathfinder lander and its Sojourner rover.
When you’re a Muslim in orbit, how
When you’re a Muslim in orbit, how do you determine which way Mecca is and how often you need to pray? “The ISS is more than 200 miles from the Earth’s surface and orbits the earth every ninety-two minutes, or roughly sixteen times a day. Do we have to worship eighty times a day (sixteen orbits a day multiplied by five prayer times)?”
Photographs taken by NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor
Photographs taken by NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor suggest that liquid water may still run on Mars. Successive photos of crater gullies show activity in the last 4 years.
Top 100 photos taken by the Hubble Space
Top 100 photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, a singularly talented photographer.
Woo, NASA finally decides to fix the
Woo, NASA finally decides to fix the Hubble, repairs that will keep it working until at least 2013. “Scientists expect an upgraded Hubble to continue to make groundbreaking discoveries.”
Great photos of the Space Shuttle launch
Great photos of the Space Shuttle launch taken from the International Space Station. (via cyn-c)
Update: The photos weren’t taken from the ISS but from a chase plane. (thx, greg)
Space tourist Anousheh Ansari is Flickring photos
Space tourist Anousheh Ansari is Flickring photos from the International Space Station. NASA reportedly spent 250,000 man-hours building a module to upload snapshots from space via the Flickr API.
Update: That NASA man-hours stat is a joke, sorry. NASA is not that absurdly wasteful. I have no idea how she’s getting the photos on Flickr. Do they have web access on the ISS?
Update: Ansari called Larry Page today and reported that there’s no internet access on the ISS. Email is delivered in batches…so she’s either emailing them to Flickr or someone’s uploading them for her. BTW, the first kottke.org reader in space…could you give me a call when you get there? (thx, terrell)
Update: According to Ansari’s blog (from space!), email is sent from the ISS three times per day.
Yesterday, almost 30 years after it was launched,
Yesterday, almost 30 years after it was launched, the Voyager spacecraft crossed the 100 AU boundry, meaning it is 100 times farther from the Sun than the Earth is. The article is worth a read. (via sb)
Video simulation of what might happen if
Video simulation of what might happen if a meteor strikes the earth.
Jupiter is growing another big red spot.
Jupiter is growing another big red spot. The gas giant has been told by solar system pals to “keep an eye on it” and “have it checked out” if it gets any bigger.
Russia plans to drive a golf ball
Russia plans to drive a golf ball off of the ISS with a gold-plated, scandium alloy six-iron into a four-year, low-earth orbit….which may actually damage the space station if the ball is not “hit out of the station’s orbital plane”. I understand this event will be debuting at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
The issues involved with buying and selling
The issues involved with buying and selling moon dust. Back in 1993, a 200-milligram moon rock was sold for $442,500.
Middle school students in Indiana and Australia
Middle school students in Indiana and Australia are building edible moon rovers, with the idea that if you’re going to ship a car to the moon or Mars, why not have it be edible when you get there?
A relativistic examination of gravity in the
A relativistic examination of gravity in the galaxy may indicate that the invention of dark matter may not be necessary to solve the not-enough-matter problem. “The motions of stars in galaxies is realized in general relativity’s equations without the need to invoke massive halos of exotic ‘dark matter’ that nobody can explain by current physics.”
Update: mjt has doubts about the paper referenced here and notes that there’s other evidence for dark matter that is not questioned by the above study.
Google and NASA have announced plans to
Google and NASA have announced plans to collaborate on projects like “large-scale data management, massively distributed computing, bio-info-nano convergence, and encouragement of the entrepreneurial space industry”. In 6 months, Yahoo will announce a collaboration with the Russian Space Agency to launch original content into space. Microsoft will announce in a year that they’ve had space travel capabilities built into Office for years now but no one uses it…in two years time, they’ll completely reorg around manned missions to Mars.
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